By Adam Clark

Broadcom and Marvell Technology have been market darlings in recent weeks as investors warm to their mix of custom artificial-intelligence processor and networking business. Oppenheimer's Rick Schafer thinks investors have it right, naming both as top picks going into semiconductor earnings season.

Broadcom has risen 28% in the past month, while Marvell is up 52% over the same period. Broadcom has clinched a series of extended AI processor design deals, while Marvell is riding enthusiasm about optical-networking components.

Broadcom trades at around 22 times its forecast 2027 earnings per share, according to Schafer. That compares with an average of 28 times for other AI chip companies. He has a $450 target price on the shares, which were trading around $400 in Friday's premarket.

"[Broadcom's] [s]ustainable growth and cash return supported by core networking, wireless, broadband, server/storage, and software franchises, " Schafer wrote.

Although Marvell is pricier at about 24 times its forecast 2027 earnings, Schafer still sees room for gains. He has a target price of $170 on the stock, which was trading at around $134 on Friday.

On top of recent excitement about Marvell's networking business, the Oppenheimer analyst thinks the company is still well positioned for long-term chip design work with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.

"Key relationships with AWS and Microsoft [are] on track," Schafer wrote. "Celestial AI and XConn acquisitions position Marvell for future scale-up networking growth."

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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April 17, 2026 09:12 ET (13:12 GMT)

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